Word: timberwind
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...idea behind Timberwind is simple. Just pump liquid hydrogen through a small nuclear reactor heated to several thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The liquid hydrogen is instantly converted to hydrogen gas, which then blasts out of a nozzle. The resulting thrust is two to three times as great as that generated in conventional rocket engines by the explosive mixture of hydrogen and oxygen. Much larger payloads could thus be lifted into orbit...
These technological problems may be solvable. Timberwind proponents say cleanup systems could remove radioactive by-products before they are discharged into the air. Better still, the atomic engines would be handy on a manned mission to Mars. Nonetheless, the program's political problems may be insurmountable. The 1979 accident at Three Mile Island shook America's confidence in nuclear technology, and the Challenger explosion dramatically demonstrated the vulnerability of space launches. Not surprisingly, many scientists are bothered by the idea of putting these two technologies together. In 1989, antinuclear activists, protesting potential "Chernobyls in the skies," organized the first civil...
...nuclear devices go, Galileo's generators were relatively innocuous. Thermoelectric generators are battery-like gadgets that use natural radioactive decay in their fuel cells to produce electric power. Timberwind's engines, on the other hand, are true nuclear reactors that split atoms and generate heat, using the same chain reactions that power atom bombs. Although modern nuclear engineering has virtually eliminated the risk of explosions and meltdowns in such reactors, the problem of disposing of radioactive wastes has not gone away. Nor has the stigma attached to nuclear reactors in general. "If anybody tries launching a reactor-powered rocket," says...
...interested in Timberwind? The reasons date back to the early 1970s, when NASA, with the Pentagon's blessing, decided to put the bulk of its research funds into the reusable space shuttle. Further development of conventional rocket boosters stalled. Now both agencies find themselves bumping into the limited payload capacities of the remaining rockets; NASA for hoisting its space station into orbit and the Pentagon for lifting its big directed-beam Star Wars weapons. The proposed nuclear-powered rockets would more than triple the payload of the U.S.'s most powerful booster, the Titan 4, from 20 tons to more...
According to Steven Aftergood, a space expert at the Federation of American Scientists, project Timberwind is still at an early stage in its development. Fuel elements have been built and tested. Testing grounds have been selected in the Nevada desert. The Defense Science Board has given the project its seal of approval. And plans have been made to send a prototype rocket on a suborbital test flight over Antarctica and parts of New Zealand. All this was before the veil of secrecy had been lifted, however. Now that the word is out, and Congressmen have begun to stake out positions...